Problem: William bought a new pair of socks at the store when they were having a $20\%$ off sale. If the regular price of the pair of socks was $$69$, how much did William pay with the discount?
First, find the amount of the discount by multiplying the original price of the of the item by the discount. $$69$ $\times$ $20\%$ $=$ Percent means "out of one hundred," so $20\%$ is equivalent to $\frac{20}{100}$ which is also equal to $20 \div 100$ $20 \div 100 = 0.20$ Multiply the discount you just converted into a decimal by the original price to find the amount of money saved. $0.20$ $\times$ $$69$ $ = $ $$13.80$ Subtract the discount you just found from the original price to get the final price William paid. $$69$ $-$ $$13.80$ $ = $ $$55.20$ William paid $$55.20$ for the pair of socks.